Finally Face Those Feelings
by Angelic Guardian
Summary: Tori figured that if Beck wasn't going to face his feelings, she might as well face her own. Oneshot. Alternate ending to Opposite Date.


**Author's Note:** Wow, 'Opposite Date' was such a great episode, especially that whole last scene when random strangers started psychoanalyzing Beck and Tori and asking them about their possible feelings for each other and mentioning how Beck is afraid to face his feelings…just _wow._ Inspiration, _there_ you are!

(Oh, and I just gotta say that Robbie was totally adorbs in that pear suit. Andre, too, but especially Robbie. ;D)

**Disclaimer:** Victorious © Dan Schneider

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"Mmm-hmm. _Sure._ Definitely _not_ a date," the random elderly lady clutching her brown leather purse to her lap sarcastically commented, to which murmurs of agreement from other total strangers immediately followed.

Tori looked around at all of these strangers nodding their heads, as if they had everything about her and Beck all figured out. Seriously, who were _they _to do that? They didn't even _know_ them!

"I think we're ignoring the obvious question here. Do _you two _ have feelings for each other?"

Tori's heart stopped, and in just the split-second that followed that question, her blood rushed to her head and spilled into her cheeks. She could feel all eyes on her, everyone silent, yet smiling, and teasing, and _judging_ her, as if they all already _knew_ the answer better than she did. And in just that split-second, it was as if she could read all of their thoughts:

_Well, duh! Just look at them! Two good-looking kids like that! Of course they secretly like each other! Why else would they be trying so hard to convince everyone, including themselves, that they _aren't_, for the millionth time, out o__n a date!_

And as these thoughts flooded into Tori's mind against her will, she swallowed hard and, finally, glanced helplessly over at Beck. He looked pale, surprisingly pale, and his eyes were wide as saucers.

In an attempt to comfort him, Tori reached out and touched Beck's shoulder, but when she did he immediately flinched and jerked his arm away, as if her hand were a bug that had just landed on his shoulder.

Tori felt her face fall as Beck finally looked at her. He blinked once, twice, and just stared out at her, not really looking at her, and she only frowned harder.

"Sorry," he muttered to her, then reached up and ran a hand through that nice long hair of his. "Sorry."

She didn't know why, but suddenly, she wished she hadn't agreed to this whole 'opposite date' nonsense. She wished she'd just told Beck flat-out from the beginning that, no, an 'opposite date' was a terrible idea, because no matter how hard they'd try, eventually one of them would realize that the plan was failing miserably. Then, before they knew it, they'd be accidentally brushing hands, and they'd both stop, and they'd look at one another, and something would just _spark_ between them. Tori would smile softly, and Beck would look down and sheepishly run a hand through his hair.

And then, they'd be linking hands, fingers intertwining, but even as they'd do it, they'd still be telling each other that this still totally _wasn't_ a date, that friends held hands all the time and that it was no big deal.

Then there would be a pause. A very long, very awkward pause. They'd be out on the street, in their gross sweats, both smelling kind of musty, Tori claiming that she hadn't showered (when really, she did, and she had been very careful when applying her makeup, too, just a little mascara, a stroke of blush for each cheek and a touch of ruby lipstick), and out of nowhere, Beck would tell her that she looked beautiful.

She would smile wider, and as her heart would flutter in her chest, she'd quickly remind herself that this was _not a date, _and her smile would falter, and so would Beck's once he realized just what he'd said, how he shouldn't have said that, how friends didn't say stuff like that in such an intimate way.

But _then,_ without realizing it, their hormones and impulses would take over, and one of them would lean in first (Beck, probably, because technically the guys were always supposed to make the first move), and Tori would lean in slightly more eagerly, and their lips would just _crash_ together like a burst of fireworks. They'd let go of each other's hands and slip them into each other's hair, and they'd be full on _making out in the middle of the street, _and they wouldn't stop kissing until their lungs started to hurt from lack of air.

And when they'd pull apart, they'd stare at one another, unmoving, hearts pounding, as they regained their breaths. Tori would notice how Beck's hands had managed to slip around her back, clutching her close, and a smile would involuntarily break over her lips, and he would smile, too, and a chuckle would escape from her throat. They'd close their eyes and let their hearts do what they'd been wanting to do for a long time, and they'd kiss again, with no regrets, no fear, and they'd take it from there and see where the journey led them.

Now, sitting in the animal hospital waiting room, Tori abruptly turned her head away from Beck, realizing that her slightly warm cheeks were now completely burning up with scorching heat. She reached up and clasped a hand against her pink shirt, resting it over her pounding heart. She briefly closed her eyes, trying to calm down her emotions. It was the first time in a long time that she felt like she wanted to die of embarrassment.

"Oooh, ya see?" the elderly woman sitting next to them piped up again. "They ain't answering us. That means they _do_ have feelings for each oth—"

"Hey," Beck said in a sharp voice, causing Tori to snap her head back to look at him in surprise. Everyone in the waiting room fell silent, even that nosy elderly woman. They were all just staring at Beck, Tori included, all wide-eyed and sitting at the edges of the seats in anticipation for what he was going to say next. "Shut up. Our personal lives are _none_ of your business, you understand me?"

Then, abruptly, he stood up, tugging on the dog leash, and he looked down at Tori, his eyes now serious, maybe a little apologetic, too. Tori stared up at him, her mouth hanging open, and then, she felt her heart jump as Beck reached down, grabbed her hand, and quickly tugged her to her feet. He promptly let go, only to wrap his arm around Tori's shoulders, pulling her close. She didn't resist any of it and just let herself fall flat against his body, where she could feel his heart banging in his chest. She blinked wildly and looked down to see his aunt's sickly brown dog rise to its feet and start wagging its fluffy tail.

"Goodnight," Beck said, looking directly at that elderly lady, who merely sat there looking up at him with her own mouth agape and her eyebrows scrunched to the bottom of her forehead.

He squeezed Tori's shoulder in what felt like his own an act of comfort, and with that, he led them out the door. He walked quickly, holding his head up high, looking straight out in front of him, the dog trailing behind, trying to keep up with his firm, brisk steps.

"Beck?" Tori found herself saying, her voice unintentionally soft and timid. She flickered her eyes up to look at him as they kept walking towards his car.

"Yeah?" he asked in that same loud, clipped tone he'd used inside the vet's waiting room.

Tori felt her face falter again, but she knew she had to say this before she lost her nerve.

"You don't…you don't think they're _right,_ do you?"

At that, Beck stopped walking, and the dog stopped as well, plopping right down on the ground. His hand slipped from Tori's shoulder as the two of them just stood there now, their faces silhouetted by the streetlight hanging above them. Tori stared at him carefully, watching as he reached up and dragged a hand down his face, stopping at his mouth. He removed it and pressed it against the side of his head.

"I…I don't know," he said finally, and Tori felt a twitch of disappointment, but then, Beck just started shaking his head, and suddenly, he went off. "I don't know, Tori, I don't know! I mean, sometimes, I think that _maybe_ there's a possibility that I _might_ have _some_ romantic feelings for you—"

Tori's eyebrows shot up at his choice of words. _Romantic?_

"—but then _other times,_ I try to convince myself that I don't—no, that I _can't_ have feelings for you, because you're sort of, somewhat friends with Jade, and Jade's my ex-girlfriend, and we have to take into account that maybe _she_ still has feelings for _me_—"

Tori felt her heart ache in guilt. Yes, that was true. That was why she stopped Beck when he'd tried to kiss her months ago, around the time of the Platinum Music Awards. She was thinking about Jade, how she couldn't do that to her. She just _couldn't._

"—but _then,_ when I start to think about Jade, all I can think about is how she used to treat me like a…well, more like a _dog_ instead of a living, breathing _human being. _No offense, Buster."

Tori took a quick glance at the dog, who was now lying down on the concrete, closing his eyes for a nap.

"…and it's not that I _hate_ Jade, because I don't," Beck went on, and suddenly, his voice got softer, less intense. "I could never hate her. She's a great person, but she's just…she's _not_ the person I want to be with, and I think she's starting to realize just as much as me that our relationship was just toxic and that we weren't right for each other, and that I should be with someone else, someone more…more like—"

"BECK!" Tori shouted, silencing him. He dropped the hand he'd been flailing around as he vehemently poured out his thoughts to her, and he was just staring now, staring directly into her eyes, his mouth shut. The sight was, in spite of it all, undeniably _cute,_ and Tori couldn't help but grin then. She brought a hand to the back of her head, running it down her scalp. "Can I, um, try something for a second?"

Beck blinked, furrowing his brow.

"Okay…" he said slowly, unsurely, which only made Tori grin wider.

"Okay," she said under her breath, mostly saying it to herself, to try to brace herself for what she was about to do. She released her hand from her head and slapped it against her thigh. She could feel a nervous energy building up inside of her as she took a step closer to him.

She then lifted both of her hands and, gently, cautiously, slid them against each of Beck's cheeks. She felt his warm skin, and she looked deeply into his eyes, which were wide now, wide and alert, as though ready for anything. She allowed her own eyes to drift shut as she leaned in towards him, tilting her head slightly as she kissed him on the lips.

She felt his lips tighten against hers for a moment, before his mouth began moving with hers, lips opening and closing in a slow rhythm. She felt his hand come up to clasp against the back of her head, cradling her, as their lips molded and moved together. And then she felt his tongue touch her bottom lip, and her heart exploded as she let out a soft moan at the many warm sensations she was feeling.

Finally, though, she pulled back, because it was getting to be too much, and she needed some air, just like how she imagined it in her fantasy. She pursed her lips and opened her eyes, still cupping his cheeks in each of her hands.

Beck let go of her head and, gently, touched one of her arms. She felt a grin inexplicably pull at the corners of her mouth, and she let her hands skim down his face and onto his chest.

"Well," Tori said, only grinning wider as she looked down at her own hands that were blatantly splayed across Beck's chest. She looked back up into his eyes to see him grinning slightly, very softly, which she found adorable. "I think we can safely say that this is no longer an _opposite_ date."

Beck smiled wider, too, as he bent his head down, resting his forehead against Tori's.

"Yeah," he said, and they both looked down at Tori's hands on his chest. Slowly, they looked back up at one another, and Tori felt a blush creep over her cheeks as she quietly cleared her throat and took her hands away. She bit her bottom lip and dropped her gaze again, wondering what to do now. "Listen, Tori, I…"

He trailed off, and she still wasn't looking at his face, but she watched as he touched her hand, hesitantly brushing his fingers over the back of her hand, before he firmly took her hand in his, squeezing it. He swung their hands together, and finally, Tori looked up at him, waiting for him to finish.

"…I really like you," he confessed, and Tori felt her cheeks tighten as her lips raised up in an even bigger smile. Beck reciprocated the grin, briefly looking back down at their cupped hands. "…and I _think_, judging by the way you just kissed me…which, by the way, I thoroughly enjoyed…a _lot_…" Tori exhaled in a soft laugh. "…I think…we should give this a shot."

"You mean…" Tori heard herself speak, barely recognizing her voice as it came out so softly, yet with a touch of eagerness, "…_us?"_

"Us," Beck repeated, and then he lifted their cupped hands and kissed the back of her hand. "Us."

They both grinned at each other, and then he pulled her in for another long, deep kiss, and Tori let herself get lost in the moment, wrapping her arms around his neck, until a forgotten Buster whimpered in pain, and the two of them broke apart and looked down at him. Tori ruffled the dog's furry head, and Beck tugged on the leash, and they finally started walking towards his car again, their hands now laced together, the two of them still smiling.

And across the street, having seen the entire thing while sitting in the parking lot of an ice cream shop, was Jade. She tightly clutched her steering wheel with both hands while Cat sat beside her, happily licking a strawberry ice cream cone that she'd just bought her. Jade stared out at the streetlight that Beck and Tori had been standing underneath, her head slowly slumping against the driver's seat as she let go of the steering wheel and shut her eyes.

"Jade?" Cat's annoyingly soft voice pierced through the brief silence, making Jade cringe in irritation, before she reluctantly opened her eyes and looked at Cat.

_"What?"_ she snapped, causing Cat to squeak and wince slightly, like she was afraid Jade was going to take her ice cream and throw it out the window again.

"Aren't you gonna take my phone again so you can call Tori to see where she and Beck are going next?"

Jade stared at Cat for a moment, and Cat just stared back innocently, slowly bringing the ice cream to her mouth and taking another lick. Jade turned away then, reaching on the dashboard for her own phone.

"What are you doing?" Cat asked in her usual oblivious tone, but Jade just ignored her and began typing out a text message. Cat clearly got bored of waiting very quickly, since the next thing out of her mouth was, "Hey, do you think strawberries and squash would get along if they could talk?"

"I dunno, Cat, I'm sure strawberries are very friendly fruits," Jade said in an emotionless voice, still looking down at her phone as she finished up and sent the text. When she was done she slapped her phone down on the dashboard and turned the key in the ignition. "I'm sleeping over your house tonight, all right?"

"Okay, but just so you know, on Saturday nights my brother likes to have screaming contests with the old man who lives next door to us and—"

"On second thought," Jade cut her off, putting the car in drive and beginning to drive out of the parking lot, "you're coming over my house."

"Ooh, goodie!" Cat said in excitement. "Can we have a sock fight?"

"What, dare I ask, is a _sock_ fight?" Jade asked as she put on her turn signal.

"It's like a pillow fight, but instead of using pillows, you use socks to fight each other with!" Cat explained. "My brother invented it!"

"Of course he did," Jade sighed, looking out to make sure that no cars were coming as she made her turn. "Sure, we'll play your stupid game."

"Yay!" Cat squealed, and a small silence followed as Jade drove and Cat ate more of her ice cream, until she curiously asked, "By the way, Jade, what was that text you sent just now?"

Jade looked at Cat through the rear view mirror, meeting her brown eyes, and a few more seconds of silence followed, before Jade tore her eyes away to look back out at the road in front of her.

"Don't worry about it," she said, pressing down harder on the accelerator, unknowingly driving past Beck and Tori, who were now comfortably seated across from one another in a booth at a diner, having just ordered some actual, _non-_disgusting food, when Beck felt his phone vibrate with a text.

He reached for the phone in his pocket and opened the text. As he began to read it, his face slowly dropped, and by the time he finished reading the lengthy message, he was left looking downright stunned.

"Everything okay?" Tori asked, placing down her glass of water.

Beck looked up at her with raised eyebrows. He shook his head, as if trying to snap himself out of shock.

"Yeah," he said, quickly looking back down at his phone. A small grin began to play over his lips. "Yeah, everything's good." He looked back up at Tori, who looked a little nervous now, but he just smiled at her, and she slowly smiled back. He reached over the table and stroked her hand, looking down and texting back a reply:

_Thank you, Jade. That means a lot. And you're right. I want that for you, too.  
_

When Jade later opened the reply after pulling into her driveway, she read it to herself in silence, and when she was finished, she let a small grin of her own gently spread over her face.

* * *

_Hey. Don't ask me how, but I found out about your little 'opposite date' with Vega tonight. I ended up driving around with Cat all night trying to find you guys. I even called Vega a few times pretending to be Cat to see where you guys were going so I could follow you and see for myself if you guys really were on a fake date. Anyway, I saw you two come out of that nasty pet hospital, and I saw you going off for a really long time. I couldn't hear you, but from what I could tell, I think you were talking about me. And then I saw Vega shut you up by kissing you, and I just froze. And I saw how you were kissing her back like you really meant it, and it made me realize just how ridiculous I was being, sitting in my car, trying to stalk my ex-boyfriend, as if me doing that was going to change anything. The fact of the matter is, we broke up months ago, and you know what? I'm finally starting to accept the fact that, maybe, you do like Tori, but really, so what if you do? You can like her, date her, whatever you want. It shouldn't bother me. You and I dated for a while, and it just didn't work out between us. We're not right for each other. And if you can find happiness with Vega, then I'm okay with that. Because no matter what anyone says, I do want you to be happy, Beck. And I think you want the same for me. So no hard feelings, all right? Good luck with Vega. You're gonna need it.  
_

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**Author's Note: **Whoo, long message at the end, haha.

Well, what can I say, I just really love Bori right now. I mean, I'm sure that episode coming up called 'Tori Fixes Beck and Jade' will completely change my mind, because I really do love Bade and Bori (and Jori!) pretty much equally, but right now I'm just on a Bori kick. And after seeing this episode, I kinda wish they'd get together already, even just for a little while, especially since Jade basically told Beck that it was okay.

Sooo, then…review? You know you wanna! ;D


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